DL 46 LF-7-7
I quaff another !Dexterity (discovered first one last level) and my blows soar from 5.8 to 6.5 I'm now doing 314 to evil. My ?Teleportation also increases to 5. I've clawed back from the edges of death to be back in this game. This is what Angband is all about. I almost gave up when I ran into that Elder Vampire. Glad I didn't! And moments later of saying this I find 5 !CCW and a ring of speed <+6>. I replace my ring of STR <+6> with it.

I nearly walk into a Hydra Pit and fortunately do the telepathy weapon swap in time and _TS across the level. I have two charges left of my 3 staves of teleportation so I attempt to recharge the one with 0 charges on it and it backfires. I eat a shroom of ESP from the floor and come across an Hydra/naga/snake pit. Easy street. Inside _TS (9 charges) and a !healing. I decide that the 7 item must be in the hydra pit and so take the stairs.

DL 47 LF 5-
I kill a school of multihued dragons and now have 3 !healings. I drop Uldor the Accursed and reach level 33.

I don't travel far after swapping back from Telepthy to combat when I tunnel into a room filled with hellhounds and a death drake and other nasties. I fail _TS twice and tunneling swaps for my speed ring (which makes me lament not taking a shovel of digging instead and dropping the ring of digging). Somehow none of the hellhounds breathed and I _TS'd to safety without any losses.

DL 48 LF 5-6 A short walk upon arriving on DL48 and I discover a staff of speed, which I take and leave my detect evil behind. I head up a corridor and come upon a patriarch, sorcerer and master thief whom I rush and attack all at once, trying to maximize my temporary speed. They all die so fast. I !Illuminate the level since it has a 6 feeling and there isn't much on it, so the magenta potion catches my eye. I'm feeling like it's probably Augmentation. And it is. I pick up another !speed as well. I switch to |Telepathy before hitting the stairs.

DL 49 LF 6-?
There is a small pit (5X7) with two 11-headed hydras in it. I love that I am a warrior with superb stealth. This is a pretty lethal combination, as stealth is meant to be a major sacrifice my class/combo makes for all his brawn and con. I'll just walk the other way, tyvm.

Oh come on. I was just about to switch back to |Telepathy when a beholder casts a bolt of lightning and destroys one of my wands of TO.

Dwarven or Elvenkind? A Ranger Chieftain drops me a wicker shield of elvenkind (rPois) and there is a <+2> STR/CON dwarven armor on this level. So I could swap out my shield of resistance/good AC with the low ac elvenkind and swap my elvenkind armor <+2> Stealth with the dwarven. Gaining <+2> STR would add a little to my damage as I'd increase my bpr from 6.3 to 6.5. I'd gain something like 14 dam to evil, not to mention the CON. But I'd lose <-1> stealth and 34AC, taking me from 166AC to 132AC. I really feel like high AC is so key if you have decent damage and that sacrificing a lot of AC for a little damage and CON isn't worth it. Losing some weight would be a bonus, though as I am slightly overweight right now lugging around a shovel of acid immunity <+2> extra attacks I just picked up (although it doesn't dig appreciably better than my other two weapons). I'm tempted to invoke "if it ain't broke, don't fix it" and right now I like my @'s setup. Oh, wait. Doing this would allow me to wear my ring of <STR> and get rid of my FrAct ring. So now it's kind of a no brainer. I hold onto the shield of resistance and elvenkind armor and dropped the ring of FrAct and hit the stairs. A home would be nice right now.

DL50 LF 5-5
Find a long sword (3d5) of *slay dragon* with pBlind. I always think it's cool finding augmented dice non-artifact weapons. I find gloves of fire immunity with <+3> speed and take the stairs.

DL51 LF 5-5
Cavern level and nearby are boots of speed <+7> I now have +17 native speed.
While I do have a ?*Destruction*, the boots of speed come none too soon as I come upon a pack of nether hounds. I can easily outrun them and find advantageous position (not that much of one can be found in a cavern level). I kill them, though and reach level 34. 551HP.

I've cleared the level, including killing Medusa Gorgon and there is a ?DD here. Wondering if I should read it as I am very comfortable for my depth. If I take my time I can amass more consumables. If I dive, I can be careful and amass more consumables.... I only have 5 charges of TO, though. I think I'll just fall into this nearby trap door.

DL52 LF 7-? I sneak around a mini-vault with sleepy types like Dracolich and Ar-Pharazon. I pick up another wand of TO and kill everything in the vault except the Dracolich which I TO. Ar-Pharazon takes me to 158 health but doesn't pull any shenanigans. It's a straight melee affair to the death (his death) and I gain level 35. Ar-Pharazon kindly drops a ring of speed <+11>. We go'n win dis game. We go'n win. Ar-P was standing on the pendant Turos <+2> CON <+6> Speed. 28 native speed overweight might be a bit excessive. I lose rDisenchant swapping, but I think I will do it for now; the con is very welcome, too, although 572 to 609 isn't a huge gain. There are several unID'd scrolls on this level. The one in the vault is Teleport Level.

DL 53 LF 5-4
Very tame level. A dread drops an !Augment. and one of each body stat potions are quaffed, bringing HP to 662 and dam to 367 vs evil. Boring level thereafter so tunnel to nearest stairs.

DL 54 LF 5-?
Wow, just found my first !*Healing*. And Elvenkind boots <+1, +8> How much speed is too much speed? I have native 30 speed if not overweight. I just found a ring of dam (+13) and a few levels ago a (+9) ring of dam. If I wear both I get 452 vs evil and still 18 speed. What I really need is a good ring of power with not too much speed on it.

Since I have fire immunity I dropped all my drainables and took a beating from Balrog of Moria good for like 46K exp. He thumped me more than I expected, but I do have less AC now. He took me down to half health. I will leaving his artifact drops behind.

DL 55 LF 6-6
I gain level 37 slaying a *very large* troll hoarde.

DL 57 LF 7-8
Very large vault. Picked up a couple more wands of TO last level.
Just got assaulted by a very aggressive druj. Kept confusing me and obliterating my HP. I had to heal and finally gambled on _TS, which thankfully worked and took me to the farthest West in the level which is when I discovered the large vault to my East.
And a Dreadmaster drops !Enlightenment.

The vault looks like a Mayan totem or something. With 28 speed and 26 TO this vault is mine!

Oh well, Tensers is here.

Awww snap, Kavlax drops some very good armor. Tons of resists, <+4 CON> and pBlind. I put it on and then immediately put the Dwarven back on remember that it is my only source of FrAct.

I very recently just found my first !*healing*. I now have 4. Lotta junk in this vault. Quite disappointing. Did find a cap of telepathy, tho. Oh, there was one thing, the ring of Marie. <+4> STR, WIS, <+5> DEX, <+2> Stealth, Lightning immunity, rLite, rSound, rNexus, pBlind, FrAct. Now, about that Kavlax armor.... I thought Aggravation happened almost immediately? I took about 20 steps with the kavlax armor to a ?Identify and learned the rune of aggravation, not by wearing the armor, but by reading the scroll. I did find better dwarven armor that increases my AC to 160, though.

DL58 LF 7-?
I smite Itanigast and gain level 38 and take from a chest is the ring of Lonwe <+3> CON/WIS, <+2> Speed
protetion from blindness, confusion, FrAct, rLite, rFire, rLightning. Wearing it brings my CON to 902. Not bad for CL38. I kill a dark elven lord and he drops me 3 ?phase doors, bringing my total to 8.

Since I'm lugging around about 5 pieces of equipment I'm not yet willing to part with, I'm unable to carry two dropped !Enlightenments. So I quaff one and find a very small + shaped vault. In it Brigandine armor Elimlo [48, +14] <+5> Speed rChaos, rDisenchant, pConf and activates to destroy all doors around me. I will wear this. I am tempted to drop my ring of speed. Wearing the two rings of power and this armor brings my native speed to 25. That's fairly boss. My AC drops 18 to 141 and my hp drops 95 to 807. Now I should probably drop both the dwarven and the elvenkind rPois. Oh, and the ring Lonwe is still {??} after ?IDing pStun. With this setup, (which isn't great on dam) I resist and protect against everything except rShard and rDark (and still not sure about rNether).

I can't decide if I want to drop my rods of curing. And the Lonwe ring is now mostly redundant, meaning ring of Dam is probably better for most situations. I think what I'll do is main Lonwe and for certain fights swap it with the =DAM (+13). Should I drop the =Speed <+11>? Should I drop the -Curings?

I'm also going to drop an elfstone of pConf Beorn dropped me on DL56.

DL60 Yes!! I had my mind on finding a rod of TO and boom! Nether Wraith just dropped me one. !Enlightenments are up to 3 now. I'm still holding onto 4 artifacts that aren't useful to me, and 3 of them I doubt will ever be. I need to drop something to pick up this rod. rDisenchant pendant is going.

I know I got into trouble doing this early on in my misadventure, but just now I decide to use a staff of summoning since I have good HP, tons of resists and great speed. Charge 1: I get a Nightwing that I kill easily. Charge 2: Water troll blocking a Draconic Q. I kill the water troll and step next to the Q and kill it. Charge 3 & 4 are nobodies.

DL62 5-6 Found a ring of slaying (18, +8). Pretty cool (not useful, but cool). Passed by Eol but wanted to check out a special room first where I found a good helmet without Telepathy that I'll use as a swap for certain battles: *Acid, Chaos, Disench, Cold, slows metabolism {??} Useful enough against Eol who summoned a purple worm I happily ignored (shoots acid). In other news I now have 6 of each !Healing/*!healing.

Both rings cover pBlind and one covers rNexus. I have gloves with <+3> Dex, pBlind and rNex that I'm saving in case I get *Fire elsewhere (currently wearing <+3> speed *Fire gloves). Now I'm considering dropping the <+3> DEX gloves (they have great AC) for (+6, +2) thievery gloves <+3> <+6> that Eol dropped, but have terrible AC (10 total). While redundant now, not sure risking they won't be later is worth the (+6, +2) (not that I'll ever find a better source of *Fire, but I may yet in a ring). I guess I'll hold onto the artifact gloves.

DL638-5
I beat earth hounds to a !CON in the center of a very large cavern. Con is now maxed at 200 and I'm back to 902hp.

Think I'll clear this rubble. Sweet, just got a nice straight upgrade on my helm of telepathy [3, +8] to [7, +14] after the 4th rubble I dug into.

I'm about the take the stairs when I see a cool looking lava cavern so I investigate...

Quite scary, but I did just pick up a better xbow (X4) (+15, +17) and I am immune to most of what's here, though still very dangerous. Since I have a rod of TO I think I will take it on. The Horned Reaper summons and batters me to 294HP so I _TS. He has a little more than 1/3 of his health left. I also have 8 seeker bolts of slay demon I can use. He comes back for me as I'm tunneling a diagonal corridor in the northeastern nook of the giant cavern. I easily finish him off with the demon bolts before he reaches me and gain level 39.

I don't bother resting up before heading back; eager to crush more major demons. I recklessly start going down the corridor and more demons start summoning so I put on the speed ring, TO an Osyluth and go back into knight's move just south of the eastern entrance of the long corridor where two Mariliths drop a !*healing* and !wisdom.

I make an arrow shooting corridor to kill the lesser Balrogs but I'm too fast and they keep stop pursuing me.

I take out the Lesser Balrogs with bolts and then switch to the *Acid helm to take out the Bile Demons. I kill them all with 463hp remaining.

I sift through the drops and ?Identify rNether on the ring and read an unID'd rune of protection which isn't terribly placed now. I go to lure the other demons to my sword.

I don't think it's prudent to try to make use of the rune. This hallway is way too long. I prolly will take the stairs that are right here.

I misclick (I was just trying to click back on the game) but I hit the left arrow and osyluth casts a ball of frost and makes me more more sickly and a bile demon breathes poison taking me to 340 so I read what is becoming a rather thick stack of ?Teleportations and have 11 left.

4 squres from the stairs I meet one of the Osyluths I TO'd and my rod is still charging from a lesser balrog so I disappear him with my stack of wands and descend.

There are 13 gravity hounds just to my north but with pStun and 35 speed I think I may sharpen my sword on them, though maybe I should heal up a bit. I only have 370hp.

The level feeling is somewhat favorable so I !Enlighten and immediately see two more !Enlightenments. I see Ibun, son of Mim sleeping and think I should save him for Morgoth.

Mim wakes up but he is soo slow to my 35 speed that I quickly leave him behind and enter the gravity hound room through a magma vein where I get bounced around like a pinball and up the opposite corridor. I'm suddenly not so sure screwing around with this pack of hounds is wise at all.

With 330hp my options are not very good:

I decide to _TS and it fails, but no one breathes. I _TS again and land in the southeast corner of the map. I'd like to get the two !Enlightenments near the gravity hounds but it may not be worth dying trying. It's quiet and I start wandering north and stumble upon an explosive trap bringing my health to 252. I -Detect and it's very tame indeed so I rest up and regain normal speed. at 489hp I continue to explore (not much doin).

I get halfway back to the gravity hounds and one injured one has left the pack and when he senses me tries to hide in a corner of a room.

I walk up to the hound and kill it and the room and then go north and fairly casually kill a Dracolisk. Just 6k to level 40.

I drill a Knight's move shooting corridor and one hound breathes on me but misses. This should work...

37 speed and good bolts they don't know what's hitting them. To save bolts I kill the last 5 in melee and they don't know what hit them. I grab the !Enlightenments and since there is nothing left more interesting than money I hit the nearest stairs.

I start in a 9 cubbie special room where killing some things takes me to level 40 and I max out on DEX and increase my !*Healings to 8. Aside from my lack of damage output things are going swimmingly. I should probably dive a bit and find a good weapon. I say that but with my DEX maxed I get 7 blows regardless which rings I'm wearing. So if I have a power ring and =Dam I'm doing over 400 to evil.

Roguestyle I slaughter a sleeping pack of Hezrou and one of the last ones drops:
Lamellar Armour Hyamainim [58, +21] <+3> Speed rChaos, hLife, pBlind, rCold, rLite. While nice AC and resists, I think I'll leave it behind. :-/ In a normal game it'd definitely go in my home. Another Hezrou drops a ?DD and I read it.

I start in a special room in the northwest corner of the map that looks a little bit like a cartoon monkey head.

While I'm killing a Dreadlord in one of four central compartments I see Time hounds enter the frame below. I do 406 to animals @ +26 speed and they have 330hp and only ~+10 speed.

Only a small handful come and they are dispatched very easily from knight's move as they enter my chamber (too bad I'm not wielding a rapier, otherwise I could make a reference about how too bad it's not Molly's chamber). I -Detect and see the rest of the Time Hounds. (@ is just offscreen Northeast of a Greater Rotting Q).

I walk down to meet them but they seem a bit shy to leave their room. Dwar, Dog Lord Waw comes through the door and I fail to TO twice and on the third one fumble with the keys and TO the air above me. Frustrated I _TS, not wanting to use a TO from my wand.

I land in the center of the map. I run away from Arien until my rod recharges and then TO him away. I fun away from a GWoB until my rod recharges and then I TO him away. I reconsider fighting Dwar on one of these squares of lava.

I wonder which square would be best. None of them are great but I decide to wait for him at 5W,1S. And move onto the lava 5 squares to my west when he is within striking distance. I _Hasten and quickly realize he is not going to pathfind to me so I beeline directly to him. On my way over he hits me with nether taking me to 750hp.

I reach him and this plan goes exceedingly well. I'm doing 500 vs undead and 36 speed so it's pretty quick work. He hits me with nether one more time but I only go down to 650.

He drops the Jewel Hyaras <+7, +1> Speed/Light and Caestus of Slaying (+3, +7). I wonder if I should drop the DEX <+3> gloves for these in the event I get *Fire elsewhere.

I explore a bit while I mull over my decision and see Ji Indir Dawndeath who I lure back to a lava square, but take him down a somewhat long corridor where he destroys one of my !*healings*. Once back on a lava square it's a damage free killing him.

I come make my way back to the Time hounds and see the GWoBalance again. This should be a cakewalk.

I take the Caestus and leave the artifact gloves.

DL71

I kill some lesser dragons and one of them drops a rod of TO bringing my stack to two.
I kill a g pit to get at a 'good' crossbow, but pick up a ?Phase door and *!healing* in the pit. ?Phase doors: basically I'm collecting these for the final fight at this point. I haven't used one in ages and only have 13. 30 would be nice. If I have decent damage output ?phases is the only scroll I need to kill Morgoth. If I had to choose between 30 ?phases or 6 ?MBans I'd probably take the ?phases.

I kill a pack of Brabrezu who take me to level 41 and reduce my con to 180. I come to a cluster of Hydra pits the likes of which I've never seen before:

The vault requires no strategy: I just walk around killing them. A great crystal drake drops my first ?Mass Banish, and some lesser dragons drop another -TO.

I discover my first ?Banish but decide to leave it in favor of keeping a ?Recharging for my staff of speed that has 2 more charges (though _Speeds are much more common). I don't really need banishment scrolls at this point. I've demonstrated that if I'm careful I can kill things that otherwise would require banishment. I quaff an !Experience, intentionally walk on an Undead rune, kill an eye druj and take the stairs.

DL72
I come to the queen ant and her brood and nearly kill her and then realize she'd be quite useful summoned during the M fight, so I flee and let her live. I see Fang and avoid him.

DL73

I reach level 42 and come to Gorlim. I don't know that I want him hanging around during the final fight. He probably does more damage per round on average in direct spell damage than Morgoth does.

I walk over a rune of summoning intentionally and get a Nightwalker and Ungoliant. The Nightwalker falls quickly but does some damage with a nether blast. I drop my rods of disable trap (my physical disarm is up to 81% somehow) and I pickup a ?MassBanish.

I then fail to disable an aggravation trap twice in a row.

DL74 I come to a Micro-mini checkered vault packed with treasures and am tempted to take on a Greater Titan inside since I do 412 to giants without the dam ring. But I don't think I have enough AC for the job (he has 12d12 crushing blows) so I TO him, but there only useless paper bound objects inside.

Hoarmurath of Dir drops the Band of Elladan, but it's not quite good enough compared to my current rings. It has pBlind, hLife <+3> CON, <+4> STR <+6> WIS and activates to hasten, has good resists including poison which I only have on my dinky elvenkind shield, but still I am not going to keep this. If it had <+4> DEX I might lug it around for awhile for when I get a heavier weapon.

I try to take on some nether hounds but they are crafty and some Istars from a Maia pit are after me so I retreat to Knight's move in the passageway and the 4th and last Istar takes me to 217hp and a nasty cut; right behind him is the Greater Titan but I _Hastened for these fights and the greater Titan disappears on first attempt with the rods. I suppose that was a bit unnecessarily risky as had the rod failed twice, but I'm pretty sure I'd get another turn before him had it failed once.

I suppose the nether hounds smell blood because they are coming for me now. Which is great. At 35 speed they die before they lay a claw, fang or breath on me.

I kill Ariel inside the room the hounds came out of and the Pheonix is about to enter the room. I guess he'll have to make him disappear for now. Maybe I should save him for the M fight, too, although I often give up immunities for more damage on the final fight.

I don't bother resting up and head to the A pit with about 400 or so HP. There's only a few Blue Wizards in it. It goes smoothly and I stand at Knight's move and wait for the entire pit to run themselves through my sword. I regen to 824hp during the slaughter. It's not unfruitful. 2 !healings, 5 ?phase doors, lots of stat potions (though my body stats are maxed), a rod of TO, a ?banishment, a ?recharge and a relatively junky iron crown. I'm about to read a ?Teleport level when I decide to try a new staff which *destructs* the area. I head southwest into an oval room and a Dreadmaster drops an (8d8) lochaber axe. it provides rPois and slays demons but nothing else useful about it. It does 340 vs others at 4.3 blows so if I could find a way to increase my dex it would be a good weapon. Or I could drop my caestus of slaying and take the axe. I read a ?recharging on the 1 charge _Speed and bring it to 4 charges. I drop the other ?recharging and take the weapon

I mindlessly drill through a pile of rubble on the way to the stairs and pick up another ?MassBan.

DL75 investigated a honeycomb special room and took the stairsDL76
I easily take out a bronze golem with my new weapon and gain Level 43 and I increase my ?Phase Door stack to 21.

Also, there is a small/medium size open cubby vault to my east. !Enlightment shows there is a =Band not inside of one of the cubbies. On my way over Fundin is quite compliant, and does more damage early on than later. He takes me down to 408hp.

I enter the vault and kill the Sorcerer standing on the band. It is a very nice all rounder. A proper ring of power 'Tirimlach' (+5, +5) <+6, +4, +2, +1> STR, (WIS/CON/DEX), Speed, Light. Activation: restore stats. Now the question is, which ring to replace. I'll drop the ring of Dam for now to pick it up, but I need to figure out if I am going to try to kill the witchking of angmar now (bottom left of the vault).

Now I'd just like to make a point that I'm almost ready to fight Sauron and I didn't need to go to the bottom of the dungeon to get what I need. I'd say this is true for almost all games I win. By the time I reach the bottom of the dungeon I'm no longer finding good gear because I've already found it all on my way down. Just saying. And DL75 is significantly safer than DL95 if you are relying on TO that has a significant fail rate.

I haven't rested after killing Fundin. I bee lined to the vault. I decide to take on Angmar at the top of the vault (I use a wand of stone to mud to quickly get into position), even though I only have 660hp when we start fighting. I get a few bolts of slay undead before he even sees me and I'm doing 530 to undead now with 35-36 speed while hasted. He summons a pit fiend so I use a precious ?phase which is favorable. I quaff 4 !CCW as I have many now and finish off Angmar just as the pit fiend is next to me. I switch to the lochaber axe that now does 800 to demons, but even so the demon somehow gets me down to 387hp before dying.

I heal up with a staff of cure light wounds and by killing the rest of the monsters here. I pick up a long bow of extra might (+17, +25) so I drop my xbow of power (+15, +17) and all my fine bolts and pick up 28 arrows of slay undead. Also useful are a !*healing*, _Speed and _Teleportation.

Losing all the bolts frees up an inventory slot so I pick up the =Dam which is very good with Galen since it doesn't need the extra stats from =Marie. Galen, a short sword with 2d7 dice is doing 558 to others (but lose pBlind). I drop my helm of *Acid and pick up a rune of protection.

I hit a summon Undead rune and kill a druj and nightcrawler who drops another ?Rune of Protection. I gain level 44 and hit the stairs, more stairs, and stairs immediately.

DL 80 LF 6-6
I kill Kamul who drops <+4> dex armor, another short sword but no extra blows and normal dice, (lots of slays and resistances/protections though) and a heavy xbow (X5) (+19, +23). Normally I would have stashed my best bolts in my home just for such an occasion.

I kill Wren the Unclean and some chaos hounds give me a little trouble, taking me down to 400hp. I foolishly don't rest up before trying to take on Puzazu and after a couple rounds have to _TS. I make my way back to him and on the way come across Saruman so I rest up and then kill him pretty easily. A nether Wraith drops me 22 bolts of slay undead. I take on Puzazu at almost full health. He gets me down into the 300~hp territory and he summons an osyluth and a bile demon. I TO the osyluth and ignore the bile demon (I'm immune to all but cold). Puzazu has *** left. I get him down to ** and he summons a Greater Balrog. I whack Puzazu again and he's down to * but I'm down to 229hp. I heal. I whack him again he still lives, more summons. One more round he dies and I gain level 45.

I TO the greater balrog with a wand and TO the bile demon with the rod and rip through the lesser greater demons with ease. I explore the special room Puzazu was in and quaff an !EXP and pick up a rod of speed and drop the staves since I don't often need to -haste (just for the occasional OOD unique like Puzazu).

DL39 LF: 5 No escape
...
Lorgan just had to summon a vampire lord. Now if I read the scroll and it's not destruction or teleport level, I will lose all the exp I've gained these passed two levels. I read a scroll and it's to-dam so my xbow takes it. Everyone misses me except for one hit by the Vampire Lord. And of course when you want it to be teleport level or destruction it's not. Well that experiment cost me 2500 exp. And I descend.

Good to read your story
One question to the above. IIRC if you read an unID-s scroll of to-dam, it first asks you which weapon to enchant. If you cancel reading it at that point, do you still lose your turn? Same for identify/banish/to-hit.
I would assume the answer is "no" in which case you could have changed your mind in the above situation.

That's a very good question. I think you may be right that I would have not lost my turn. I changed my sig from "adventure to "misadventure" because I make so many avoidable blunders. =D I think some of my mistakes have made the adventure more exciting, though, if not a bit cringeworthy. Thanks for reading! I should probably take more time to edit my posts; at some point I'll probably go back and clean them up a bit. I apologize if the writing is a bit sloppy or unclear at points.

DL811:30AM
I'm a bit inebriated, so let's see if I cannot kill off my Ironman winner to be. Anndddd... I nearly kill my @. Forgot Omerax drains charges, figured that out after the second time he regained a bunch of hp. As it's getting sorta down to the wire he invokes a storm of darkness which takes me to 47hp. !*Healing* time.

DL82 I intentionally walk on a trap of skin to stone since my speed is high enough that this trap is actually a benefit, not a curse. I then hit a teleport trap and seeing Glaurung decide it's a good opportunity to take advantage of the free 50AC boost. I haste self and 29 speed +50 AC is much better than 34 speed -50AC. Trust me on this. He isn't very effectual in melee and after he summons Law and Thunder drakes I have to move a couple steps before I can get them into TO view. He doesn't summon again after that. He departs this plane and I gain level 46. He drops me the Mace of Disruption Liollos <+2 attack speed> (5d8) (+14, +10) 441 vs others, 662 vs evil, non rCold. 803 vs demons/undead/giants. With +1 DEX I'd get 6.5 to 7.0 blows. I drop the Lochaber axe Tirmo and the short sword Elenor and I'll probably drop Galen, too. "Trickery may show up soon to get my dex to 200. This enchantable MoD frees up quite a few inventory slots, rendering my other weapons obsolte.

eight hours later

Sober again, I easily crush the the GWoThunder and GWoLaw and hit the stairs.

DL83 I come to a !Life and I drop Galen. I come across a pack of plasma hounds in a room and put on my high resistances ring setup (all resistances and protections except acid/cold immunities and rDark and rShards) and walk into the room and start attacking them like I would a clutch of sleeping trolls. They breathe like crazy and I kill about half of them before retreating into the hallway again with 700hp. I rest up to 732hp, fire a bolt, and reenter the room and finish off the rest in melee, which takes me down to 632hp. I drop a staff of speed I meant to only carry temporarily and pick up a ?banishment.

Fairly useless equipment shuffle quandary: I come across another very nice Elvenkind <+2> rPois armor, very similar to the first one I got, and consider dropping my =<+11> ring for it, but then remember I have used the ring to speed away from something I don't want to deal with rather than _TS or _TO (but that was before getting a rod of speed). My low AC shield is my only source of rPois. Actually, I change my mind. 34 temporary speed is all I need at this stage of the game. It's unlikely I'll find a shield that would favor this armor over my Speed/Chaos armor, but I don't really see any reason I should ever need this speed ring again. No, my current armor is too good. I'm keeping the = for now. Interestingly my shield is my only source of rCold. I almost wonder, with 4 rods of TO and very good power overall, if I should drop the wands of TO now instead of the =Speed. I leave the armor behind, it's a better shield of rPois I need, not to move rPois to my body armor. > Stairs.

DL84
I start next to a "Double Diamond" vault I've never seen before. Talk about vault starting advantage. I'm still hasted from the _Speed I dropped and have excellent stealth.

Oh sweet yes, there is another rod of speed ..to my west (not even in the vault). So the longterm plan at this point is to hopefully find a better shield that has rPois, increase consumables a bit, kill as many dangerous uniques as possible and leave the low level ones to make M fight go as smoothly as possible.

Fool! Fool of a Took! And after recently reading about the secret door bug, too. I start tunneling into the vault. Turns and turns go by, speed wears off, monsters wake up. What is going on? I step back, I step forward. "You have found a secret door." I open the door and a blue bat breathes all over everyone, then the Jabberwock breathes chaos, killing lesser things, then breathes again changing the injured Master Mystic I was killing into a green Q. I'm down to 465hp already. Time to _TS and find that other rod of speed. I back up one out of LoS of the Jabberwock and _TS.

I ID a rod of healing in a triad of tiny special rooms connected by secret doors in the northwest corner of the map. I TO Osse to get it, and head south to an undead pit at the SW corner of the map. The Jabberwock comes for me from the East, down the connecting corridor to the vault. He breathes on me as I'm stepping towards him for meleeing after he rounds the bend. I finish him off and I have to back up into a small room to TO an Arch-Lich while a black reaver bee lines towards me, but since I'm at ~400HP I flee north so I can regen/!CCW a little before smiting it. I then head south again to the Undead Pit these deep level undead came from.

I smite a bone Golem but soon find myself in a spot of trouble with two deep undead on me at 388hp. The map doesn't show the channel the Reaver bored so I'm quickly overwhelmed by deep greater Undead flooding me. I TO a nightcrawler and bone golem, fire Undead bolts at a Master Lich at short range who incants terribly, bringing me to 310hp. I smite a nether wraith, finish off the Lich with bolts, put on my ring of speed <+11> (!), pick up two ?Teleportations, 5 !CCW (39 total now) and flee for better strategic positioning and to quaff some !CCW.

I dig a diagonal tunnel until I hit the map's border and wait. No one comes so I get bored and head south again. I see a bone golem in an oval room midway down and he commands me to him. Smiting him is easy enough and I gain level 46 (1113hp).

I kill a few more bone golems, one summons a Dracolich that I take out, another gives me a nasty cut but it's nothing too worrisome. I find some low bonus seeker bolts and am still above 700hp. I TO some drainers and a nightcrawler drains my CON to 170 and blasts me with nether (which I don't resist with the two rings I'm wearing) and my health is briefly below 400hp.

In the pit is Kelek's and a second rod of speed. That brings the total of powerful objects not in the vault to 3, which makes you wonder... what's in the vault? Let's go find out....

I meet a Lesser TItan in the corridor to the vault and he summons some things that block him from coming to me. While I wait, I tunnel some sniping/control corridors. I melee the titan easily back in the corridor and crush his summons. Inside the vault I TO queen ant (she'll be great later during the M fight if he is so foolish to summon her). I stumble upon Qzzlp and he summons greater undead. I fail to TO him and he summons more ringwraiths. Second TO succeeds and I =escape back into the control corridors. The Knight's move square I'm on is just out of the screenshot.

While waiting for more foes to vanquish I start tunneling into the hallway when suddenly a bunch of stuff rush down the corridor and the Terrasque breaths on me from favorable knight's move. He can breathe on me but I can't TO him. So I _TS to the Eastern side of the map (that I haven't been to yet) near a lower level giants pit. The pit could be profitable, and very safe.

Before proceeding I -Detect to see where the TO'd monsters are:

It's very hard to see because he's camouflaged, but the Qzzlp is 5 squares north of the Demi Lich. I drop my drainables, TO an approaching undead beholder and kill the Demi-lich. He drops a !Life and 2 ?Holy Prayers. I now have 2 !Life. I head to the pit and immediately kill the cyclops, nearly in one blow. I do 813 to giants with the ?prayers. I work my way into the center of the pit so I can quickly roundhouse everyone. A !healing and ?Massbanishment are my rewards.

I come back to the vault via the southern route and tunnel my way into my original V shaped control corridor and, forgetting the Terrasque would be coming down the corridor, he breathes on me. I consider putting on the speed ring and shooting bolts at him, but it's kind of a bad idea since I'll have to ?phase multiple times and I don't have frost immunity. So I TO him.

I take out Arhokil the Blind with my weakest bolts, since he is a pretty easy target (save the Undead bolts for black reavers and things like that).

Back inside the vault I drop my 5 !Speed now that I have two -Speed I shouldn't need the potions. I pick up a ?Banishment. Deeper in the vault I take on a lesser giant who summons a crystal drake and some other things; all the while I'm circling a sleeping G-Storm Wyrm who I bludgeon once the others are dead. I pick up another !*healing* and find seeker arrows of wounding (+24, +24). Man had those been bolts....

I start attacking a GWyrm of Law at 500hp when I see a ! and move onto it, figuring there's a decent chance it is something decent (another !Life). Nothing worse than !Life being breathed on. My health is now at 450 and I realize I don't resist sound and I'm not doing amazing damage vs dragons so I !heal (I have 17 of them). He falls without breathing but takes me down from 750 to 372.

Into the next chamber I restore my CON with a !CON and I see Fang. I TO him, feeling this is no place for pets. I bash in a G-Swamp Wyrm who drops a _Banishment. I only have 435HP so I have to TO Drauglin who wakes up. But I'll risk taking the bone golem. Two great hits and a *GREAT* hit crushes his bones, but he gets in about 100 damage in a last gas before crumbling.

Un*expletive*believable. This is just. Just wow. Straight upgrades, I just love them: a Mithril Shield of Elvenkind of high AC <+1>. I cross my fingers... I'm so hopeful, but why? The odds are one in nine, it's not like they are in my favor. But yes, yes it is. rPois. Tyvm. My dreams of being AC king may be realized yet, despite all my speed. Glad I did not keep the armor or drop my ring of speed! The ring is still useful for escaping Undead mobs and the like. The new shield adds +29 AC over the old shield bringing my total to 187. I use favorable diagonal line of the vault to soften up a black reaver before destroying it at sub-optimal health (570). And melee another one without incident and I believe I have secured the vault. Updates on any items after dinner.

There are some glittery artifacts here, but the Elvenkind shield upgrade was the only piece of equipment that was a benefit to me. I increase my ?Teleportation to 17 and ?Phase door to 25, I kill a draoclich which destroys a !healing but drops an !Exp and I gain level 48.

I drop my wands of TO and my =DAM (why I didn't consider dropping it earlier instead of the =Speed...). I had ID'd a staff of banishment while in the vault. I see Fang near the stairs and tell him to go home. I descend.

DL85
Great Storm Wyrm drops the shield Ecthael [12, +12] which is basically rDark Elvenkind without the stealth and with <+4> DEX/INT. Wearing it brings me to max blows with my MoD (7.2bpr) and 694.7 to evil. I still haven't ?*enchanted* the weapon and I still have my gloves of slaying in case I decide I want an extra 50+ damage to evil. I will drop my rods of curing to carry the new shield. I am maxed on !CCW (40). 2 *scrolls* bring my MoD to (+14, +11).

I see maeglin and I drop some weight in the lower left corner of the map and then go back to fight him. I decide to maximize my damage so I put on the gloves of slaying and the shield of +Dex. I'm now doing 755 to evil. We melee and there are no summons. I have 872hp when he falls.

I take down Polyphemus easily, he misses most of the fight and I don't drop below 1000hp. Nearby I pick up another rod of healing in an oval room.

Farther south I stumble into Qzzlp who summons some friends. That's Smaug, Tseklus and Carcharoth; Aether and Time hounds, too. I will kill them all, but for now it's _TS. I no longer have the _Banishment. Maybe I'll let Smaug live.

I head back and Carcharoth meets me with a breath of nether, stripping half my health to 587. I -Heal and get in 3 seeker bolts of frost and he's already down two * when we start meleeing. He's taking good damage throughout the fight as I get multiple superb, great and *GREAT* hits in. As he nears death (and I drop below 400hp) he summons hounds, one an impact that stuns me and moves me to his other side. It's no matter, though, a !CCW and a couple more rounds and I gain level 49. That level came surprisingly quickly (another recent !EXP didn't hurt). I move around the bend of the hallway to safely Knight's move the summons. He drops Adamantite Resistance armor with 101AC. Wearing it would bring me to 226 and it might be a good fit for the final fight but I don't want to lug it around until then. It also means I wouldn't be able to swap my current speed amulet for a good "Trickery amulet (which would bring me to 7.2bpr without needing the shield swap).

I rest up and take on Tseklus next. He falls easily after summoning some silliness. I decide to take on Smaug because I have a feeling he may drop something useful. He does: a decent shield, but it doesn't have rPois. <+1> Light/Dex, <+2> CON, rBase, rNether, rChaos. However, it will complement "Trickery nicely as it will allow me to still have max CON and adds rNether to my well fleshed out character.

I don't bother resting up after Tseklus and Smaug and Thurngwethil falls pretty easily. I'd sorta like to take on Kronos. I may screw around with Qzzlp in the hopes he summons me some more high target uniques. I destroy Waldern without any losses. He summons Drauglin, Osse and Mim, all of whom I TO. He summons Faegweath who raw magics me to 149hp. I !Life since two Arch Liches and Faegweth drained my dex quite a bit (I have 3 left). I kill some other deep non uniques and finally Qzzlp summons Kronos, along with Mughash, The Phoenix and Castamir the Usurper. I TO Mughash. I put down my _TS earlier to avoid draining, so I run away after TOing mughash but The Phoenix breathes light bringing me to 436. I will have to run some distance before I regen enough to fight Kronos. I should have TO'd the phoenix.

I don't end up having to run very far and The Pheonix catches up with me at about 780hp. Drauglin will reach me from the other direction about 5 turns later, probably enough time for me to kill The Phoenix before immediately taking on Drauglin. I don't think I want The Phoenix alive.

He bolts me a lot with plasma, using up some !CCW, but my seeking frost bolts destroy him just as Drauglin steps in front of me. Perfect timing (and I forgot to -Haste). I -haste and start the fight with 528hp and finish Drauglin with 437hp. He summons some very low level monsters (except for a death knight). He drops me a cloak with +3 DEX which I may wear for the final fight instead of the current <+2> speed, hLife. I'll be back later to take on Kronos.

I rest up a little and return to Qzzlp and find Smeagol sneaking so I TO him. I kill some black reavers and arch-liches and the level starts to become dangerous. I lose another !*healing* to a young white dragon and decide it's time to stop screwing around. I quaff a !DEX and hit the stairs.

DL86
I lose less than 200hp taking out a GWoChaos that drops me a "(+4, +5) <+3> Weaponmastery. It's "Trickery I really need, though. Still, I hate to leave behind such a high slay "Weaponmastery, so I drop some lesser bolts to make room for the amulet.